That was bizarre! (29 / 26 content)

Despite having been quite an "anti" when it comes to 29ers, I bought one anyway last month. I have ridden it exclusively for a couple of hundred miles. Anyhow, today I rode my beloved Soul again and it felt so weird for the first half an hour. I felt like I was on shopping trolley wheels and it seemed so skittish.

So weird to feel that, I can't believe that my Soul could fell odd, but that's the plus of having both I suppose. I soon got back into the swing of it, it jumps and turns much better, but I sense the 29er is faster overall.

So weird to feel that, I can't believe that my Soul could fell odd, but that's the plus of having both I suppose. I soon got back into the swing of it, it jumps and turns much better, but I sense the 29er is faster overall.

You sense the 29er is faster and that is all it is...a sense.
Basically as the wheels are bigger, this creates the feeling of rolling faster as the sense of the wheel being closer to your eyes creates ground to look further away, thus having a feeling of being higher too.

A 26" bike will always generate more speed, ie, pumping down over technical terrain rather than just hitting it all with the big side shows.

Basically it's an optical illusion, the smaller wheels rotate faster to cover the same ground, thus giving the appearance of the bike traveling faster. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I mainly look at my wheels to gauge how fast I'm going.

A 29er will always generate more speed, ie, rolling down a rocky trail, less speed is lost through impacts as the wheels will take a smoother path.

You want your 26er to feel really strange, get a fat bike, ride that for two weeks, then go back to the 26. Feels like pedalling a toy bike till you land the first jump and realise you were in the air twice as long as the last time.

Basically as the wheels are bigger, this creates the feeling of rolling faster as the sense of the wheel being closer to your eyes creates ground to look further away, thus having a feeling of being higher too.

errrr what? sensation of speed is related to proximity to the ground.

The top of the wheel on a 29er is the same distance from my eyes as a 26er.

Being a geek, I relied on a combination of a heart rate monitor, a back to back test between bikes on the same trail.

The 29er is MUCH faster for the same effort. (1.8mph for the same calorific loss & Average heart rate on identical trails on the same day. Rode the 26er first)

The 26er changes direction faster, is easier to leap around on and to be honest, a bit more entertaining. For covering ground very rapidly and securely, the 29er is better. If I'm racing, it's on the 29er. If I'm cocking around at a trail centre, the 26er.

Come and ride our trails pussywimp. You won't be doing a lot of pumping when your hanging your ass off the back after 10 mins of rowdy as **** chunder! 29" smash 26" for real trail riding. If you find they don't your trails are 5 degree tame ass rivers of loam.

You sense the 29er is faster and that is all it is...a sense.
Basically as the wheels are bigger, this creates the feeling of rolling faster as the sense of the wheel being closer to your eyes creates ground to look further away, thus having a feeling of being higher too.

A 26" bike will always generate more speed, ie, pumping down over technical terrain rather than just hitting it all with the big side shows.

If you dislike the typical STW rider so much (which by definition is what you're going to find here), why do you post here? Find another forum with a population of the kind of people you want to talk to.

My 26" FS felt possitively dangerous, all twitchy & nervous compared, to my rigid 29er. First time on a 26" in a year though, but soon get used to it again. Agree with the OP, it's funny how two bikes can feel so different. If had to ride a single bike forever it would be the 29er. Be intrested to see how a 650b would feel.

After 2 yrs of finding 29ers I jumped on my mates 26" Yeti 575 the other day. The bike is near as makes no different the same as my Covert 29 in terms of size and geo apart from the wheel size - both 140mm travel, both similar if not same geometry, both bikes set up the same as we're the same height. I took it down a familiar really rocky technical descent, so sections where you have to slow a bit to pick your way round big boulders, some medium sized boulders you can grit your teeth and ride over, and some faster flowing berms sections.

It did feel weird jumping on the 26er and though the bike rode fine, the ride was much rougher. On my 29 er I feel I could go faster over the course if my balls were a bit bigger, on the 26er I feel I couldn't have hustled the bike much quicker at all even if I had the skills. In just felt more unsettled, more knarly and more on the edge. Great fun though, I also didn't really feel any benefit to the smaller wheels in the slower technical sections that demanded more maneuverability, the 29er is just as maneuverable.

Go, on, far from an objective and definitive test, more of a seat of the pants feel, but I 'm happy with my 29ers. Not dissing 26ers, my mates Yeti s a great bike. I struggle to see what the fuss is about. Are you really going to change your perfectly good 26er for another bike purely and solely for wheel size?

You get this in alot of sports. New kit comes along, people initially reject it, but over time people adapt, the kit evolves and before you know it the sport has progressed as people start doing things that were previously thought of as impossible. There is an element of adaptation that is needed and an adjustment of technique. There is nowhere for 26 inch wheeled bikes to go. They've reached the end of their development. The sport needs a change to enable further development. But for the recreational rider, it doesn't really matter. Ride what you've got and enjoy it.